The Blog of Ian Pace, pianist, musicologist, political animal. A place for thoughts, reflections, links, both trivial and not so trivial. Main website is at http://www.ianpace.com . Contact e-mail ian@ianpace.com.

The epidemic in our midst that went unnoticed (2.6.98)

The epidemic in our midst that went unnoticed; The most secret crime: Child abuse has only recently crept into the nation’s consciousness. In the first part of a four-day special investigation, Nick Davies establishes the nature of paedophilia

IN NOVEMBER last year, every newspaper in Britain carried the story of how Scotland Yard had worked with police forces around the country to raid the rooms of teachers at private schools in search of evidence of their involvement in a paedophile ring. The more interesting story, however, was one raid which never happened.

In the weeks before the operation, specialist detectives from the Paedophile Unit at Scotland Yard had discussed with Thames Valley the possibility of raiding a teacher at the most prestigious private school in the country – Eton College.

The move started after a teacher who had recently left Eton went to Thames Valley police and claimed that one…